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Though less non linear than previously, Black & White 2 is still one of the premiere strategy games of current times. The first game in the series was criticized for being perhaps too open ended which caused it to get rabid fanfare from some, but also caused some reviewers to dock it a few points. Black & White 2 successfully attempts to go to the middle ground.
In Black & White 2 you’ll play as a Greek god in a world occupied by Azteks, Greek, Norsemen and Japanese. You’ll see that the Azteks attacks the Greek capital but thankfully you’re able to escape with a few survivors. In the game, you’ll have to interact with the game’s virtual pet of sort, lead massive armies into battles, and build complex cities.
Building these cities means that you’ll have some sort of relationship with the people that inhabit it. They’ll have to worship you in order for you to get the power needed to get stuff done. If you aren’t particularly nice or patient you can get things done quicker by sacrificing people or items (like trees to accelerate a building process). That said building cities in Black & White 2 is fairly easy. You can move buildings where you want them to be. You’ll need to build structures to house and feed your workers and army, but also more aesthetically pleasing structures to keep the people happy. Building a complex, living city is vital for your survival strategy since you’ll be able to convince opponents to switch sides if you have an inspiring city. While developing the most awesome city is definitely a goal, you’ll have to keep size and defensive measures in mind. It won’t do you any good to have a great city that easily lends itself to attack. In addition to actual attacks, the opposing gods can send a natural disaster to your city, causing a lot of buildings to be destroyed. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock additional structures to build. Thankfully, building a city is intuitive because the control system is so easy to get a hang of.
Building a massive army can also be essential to your survival. The game enables you to build an army several hundred people big in order to take on the opposing forces. The combat isn’t particularly complex. The sheer size of the battles is enough to make most of them epic though. You’ll gain experience for your units if you gain victories though most times you’ll rely on god powers to get the job done.
The third major part of the game is the massive creature that you can control. You can choose from a number of different creatures including an ape, cow, lion and wolf. You’ll teach them a number of new abilities. You do this by rewarding them for behaviors you want repeated and punishing them for behaviors you want to stop. As I mentioned above, you usually have a “nice” and “evil” way to get tings done. These actions will affect how your creature looks. How much use you give the creature will also affect its experience since it become well-trained or fat. You can make the creature care for your people and help them accomplish their tasks or you can make it into the best military unit possible. If you choose the latter, you’ll quickly learn just how powerful it is since it’ll take out countless enemies on its own. If you happen to fight a rival massive creature, be prepared for a frantic battle though. A change from the previous game is that you’re able to see what the creature is thinking, allowing you to shape its behavior much more than as previously possible.
As expected, the game’s visuals are awesome. The different environments are incredibly detailed, with some having individuals blades of grass. Many of the environments are quite picturesque as well. You’ll notice that the game has some new visual effects like blurring the stuff in the background more than things in the foreground. The units in the game are excellent. They animate very well and go about completing their tasks in a totally realistic fashion. The creatures are particularly good looking though and are quite clearly the visual highlight of the game.
The game’s audio is equally solid. All of the sound effects that you would expect are included in the game. The soundtrack is pretty epic, fitting the game very well. The voice acting is also very solid, moving the story well.
Black & White 2 is definitely recommended. The gameplay is still fresh since the only possible competition is the original Black & White. The changes make the game more fun as well. The greatly improved presentation is top-notch, sealing the game up very well. -- Jake Wilson, PGNx Media
---- Nov 2, 2005
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